Re: Connectors, switches etc.

Hi Jay,

I am my power into an old half tower computer case. it is cool
because it has a front switch and three indicator lights.

It also has room for everything and looks good on the floor. I am
putting my Gecko's on floppy trays, the 3.5 to 5.25 trays you use to
hold floppies in the larger openings, leaves lots of air space and
there is room to add a fan.

The case has two fans. one where the old power supply used to be. I
cut the old power supply case and used it as a bracket for the fan.
The other in the front so it can blow in and out. One trick I
learned from computer hard drives, (old 3.5 SCSI drives ran hot) is
to put holes in the plastic front covers in front of the hard drive,
where the Gecko's now reside, and have both fans blow out. A large
quantity of air will enter through those holes.

As far as the connectors, from reading the threads this past month,
soldered directly from the stepper to the case. strain relief into
the case and screwed directly in the Gecko's.

I had though about a set of the round plugs like the Mouser 571-
2060611 part. really slick, looks like the aircraft screw on plugs.
then I was going to put them near the steppers too. then thought
that if I loose a stepper, and need to re-wire, just simple removal
is not that big a deal as I still have to wire up it's replacement.

Lastly about the caps. you will find it interesting about the
resistors. restoring an old cap is new to me and from what I figure
from the responses, as we know caps lose energy over time. if you
charge one through a 100k resistor (over 24 hours) and it never
charges, it is losing faster than it can be charged. if you charge
it is within a few percent of the charging voltage, you have a good
cap. once you are done with that test, the power goes direct.

The cap across the terminals is to create a drain. As you will find
out, electricity travels at the speed of light. you get no margin of
error when you touch the stuff. and the big caps we use contain
enough juice to be lethal. I put a 10k with LED across my 65k cap
and connected it to one of the lights in the front of my box. Turn
the power off, the power led goes out, and the cap charge dims over
time.

Dave

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "jbolt001" <js3mc@a...> wrote:
> Hello Group,
>
> I've ordered my transformer, cap and rectifier for my power supply
> and my Geckos. What I need now is some help on the rest of the
> electronic fiddly bits. Connectors, limit switches etc and a box to
> put it all in. I have not decided on software yet but it will
> probably be Master5 or CNC Pro. So here are some of my questions:
>
> What connectors would be a good choice for the steppers?
>
> What type of switches do I need for the limit switches? How about
> connectors?
>
> I'll be using the Rev1 201 Geckos. Can I set up an E-stop with
these
> or is it done on the PS? How?
>
> Should I install a cooling fan in the case?
>
> Has anyone combined the PC, drives and power supply in one case? Is
> this a bad idea?
>
> Other than the power cord, on/off switch and parallel cable
connector
> is there anything other switches, connectors etc. I'm missing?
>
> I've read some posts about using a resistor across the cap to bleed
> off excess power when not in use and another about using the same
> resistor in series to slowly charge the cap. I also recall mention
of
> using an LED to bleed off the cap. Is any of this necessary?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jay